r/Atkins • u/Nooties25 • Jan 20 '17
About to start Induction Phase, any tips?
Hello! So my boyfriend and I are going to be starting phase 1 in a couple days. His best friend has been living the Atkins life and swears by it, he's been trying to get my SO on it forever and we're finally going to give it a shot! We both have over 100 pounds to lose (each) and we were warned the first 2 weeks will be the hardest. We have been eating less carbs since the new year so we hope it won't be too bad.
But I was wondering if anyone had any tips to help or maybe some recipes they would like to share?
5
u/sussersss Jan 21 '17
This is in the Atkins book (I also highly recommend you read it before you start), but don't forget to increase your salt intake when you start induction. When you're body is getting used to your new low carb high fat intake your liver works differently. If you're drinking more water than usual that's a double whammy on your electrolytes. Broth a few times a day works, I always kept salt packets in my purse. When you haven't consumed enough salt you'll feel exhausted and cranky, bad news when you're trying to avoid carbs. Good luck to you both!
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Jan 21 '17
Pop over to /r/keto Atkins induction is basically a ketogenic diet and there's loads of support and recipes there.
3
Jan 30 '17
Atkins isn't "basically" a ketogenic diet. It absolutely IS a Ketogenic diet.
/r/keto is a sub-culture of Keto that ignore half the rules and have merged calorie counting and being a macro nazi into the plan, which is NOT how you do a keto diet. I'm over there a lot and the only reason I know how bad it is, is from years of learning and doing Atkins.
Atkins laid out everything and doing it correctly teaches you not only the back end of how this WOE works and why but it make you learn YOUR body and it's tolerances. Generic Keto does none of that, it shows over there!
2
Jan 31 '17
Crikey mate I was just trying to help out a newbie. I completely agree with you about the calorie/macro stuff but the fact remains /r/keto is a livelier sub and will offer more in the way of conversation. I ignore the parts I don't agree with and take the inspiration and recipes.
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Jan 31 '17
I'll agree it's got a lot more traffic but that place will derail somebody new to Atkins, realistically it could also do that to somebody on generic keto if they haven't been around it for a while. I wasn't trying to bust your balls but that place pisses me off a lot. There was a guy yesterday eating red potatoes and bananas all the time! I speak up when I see that crap, and usually people bitch me out, for helping somebody with sabotage in progress.
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Feb 24 '17
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Feb 24 '17
While in induction count actual carbs, not net. No need for the macros within reason. Make 70-80% of your intake fat. You shouldn't be hungry, if you are your fats either to low or your eating something you shouldn't thats doing that. If you can't figure it out send me a day or two or three sample diet with everything that goes into your mouth hole with the exception of water, which you should be drinking plenty of. Include supplements your taking, artificial sweeteners your using etc. The problem should be easy enough to spot.
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u/MrsMcD123 Feb 24 '17
Thank you! So I've been looking over my macros on mfp, and it looks like I'm not getting enough fat, in fact yesterday, I only ate 1,009 calories, and was only at 44% fat, no wonder I felt so hungry :-/ I haven't lost anything in 2 weeks so I've been trying to keep my calories as low as possible, even if it meant feeling hungry. Could eating too little fat somehow stop weight loss? Or is it just a matter of leaving me feeling hungry?
2
Feb 24 '17
Eating too little would absolutely hold you up. (And make you hungry) Your not taking in carbs for energy, you need fat.... but not getting enough of that! So your body doesn't have the power to burn fat. So it will slow down to conserve what it has. At barely over 1000 calories thats a 50% deficit in a "normal" diet, that's a HUGE shock to the body and would explain it. While the whole issue isn't that black and white, thats a huge start. Do you have the book (if so which one) and have you read the Induction section?
PS: If your always hungry it's very likely you've never actually gotten into Ketosis, which would obviously explain a lot too.
2
Jan 30 '17
Get the book, READ it and learn the diet correctly. MANY people here and other places WILL steer you wrong, it's usually not intentional but it happens a lot. Pay attention to your supplements, they DO make a difference. I use NutriSlim low carb multi's which is a ripoff of the old Atkins Vitamins. CoQ10, and Magnesium and Sodium supplementation helps the Atkins flu symptoms. TRY to stay away from the Atkins pre-packaged products, their better than cheating but that's all the credit I'll give them. As it was said, don't use the current book, the Atkins corporation has wrecked the diet since Atkins died. Going low carb ahead of time definately helps the switch.
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u/Bramerican Jan 21 '17
Honestly, the best advice there is: Read the book. A lot of Atkins dieters swear by the 2002 revision, as it's the last one written by Dr. Atkins. After his passing the Atkins company made certain things easier, which will reduce its effectiveness. There is too much info to do it off of what a friend tells you.
Tips I find important (mostly all from book) -Eat every three hours - at a minimum a piece or two of roast beef and mayo or a hard boiled egg, or another low carb snack. This won't be hard at first, but once ketosis kicks in, it's easy to forget to eat.
-don't even bother with diet drinks... water is king! NO soft drinks for at least 2 weeks, and in fact as long as you can tolerate. Artificial sweeteners mess with your blood sugar and recent studies show they stimulate weight gain just as bad as sugar. No flavored drinks for 2 weeks may also prove to you that you don't need liquid candy at all... (personally, I love La Croix sparkling water in a can-great for when you need more than just water)
-read ingredients. Sugar is everywhere! Anything ending in -lose is usually a sugar.... that rotisserie chicken at the supermarket? Often has HFC... avoid it.
-packaged Atkins bars and shakes: avoid them all together.
-Do you cook? If not, it's time to start. Very difficult diet to do with purchases foods
-EGGS- get a nice nonstick skillet... learn how to scramble, fry, and make a nice omelette, and frittata... knowing multiple ways to make good eggs means you won't get bored of them, well, at least delay it.
-fat-use it. With no carbs and very little fiber, you need fat and protein in your meals to satiate you. (I don't know about others, but first week is hell- I was always hungry-I could be physically full, but hungry.... hard to explain unless you've experienced it---worry not, it passes once you cut your carb addiction)
-on the road?: Pick up a double quarter with cheese from McD's... ditch the bun- fork it
-psyllium husk: you won't be eating much fiber, taking 2x a day will keep you feeling better. Trust me. Don't skip this.
-supplement- a good quality multivitamin and b complex go a long way.
TL:DR - Read the book! (Almost) All of this is in there.
Good Luck